Hard habit to break

I have a bad habit.

(Actually, I have several, but that's beside the point.)

The one I'm referencing this go around is my tendency to continually put things off once I feel like I'm behind. I'm not sure how this helps exactly...maybe I think that I'll get around to catching up at some point...but the longer I wait the harder it is to do that.

So here I am, REALLY behind in posting and I keep putting it off because so much happened that I feel too far behind to catch up.

But seeing as how this is the time of year for making changes and resolutions, I'm going to attempt to change this bad habit (again!) and hopefully make it stick.

Here is the abbreviated version of December 2008:

• I became a great aunt. (She is SOOO CUTE!)
• Much to our pocketbook's dismay, we had to replace our water heater. But oh how nice the new one is!
• Liam figured out crawling and is starting to pull himself up on things. Scary.
  
• Matt graduated from college!! He had a double major - one in Criminal Law, one in Psychology. (MUCH REJOICING ENSUED)
• The girls had their Christmas dance recital.
• Kenna had her preschool Christmas program.
• I crafted my heart out trying to finish baby gifts and Christmas presents.
• For the first time since we've been married, we took time off work around Christmas. All we did was hang out at home and do Christmas type things with the kids, but we loved it!
• Matt dug us out of the 4 foot high snow drifts in our driveway on Christmas day. (Have I mentioned we've had a lot of snow lately?)
• I got a new Church calling.
• Two weeks later I got another new calling.
• Major work stress. (Gotta love budget cuts...)

Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, hopefully I won't fall back into procrastinator mode.

But feel free to slap me around a little if I do.

More Catch Up Posting

I'm still catching up from the weekend. Ugh...I'm a slow poke.

Saturday (the 25th):

Since Saturday is really our only day to work on projects around the house, Matt needed to work on finishing up the garage (he's made lots of progress!!) and I was trying to get some other projects finished. So...Tanya stepped in and saved us once again.

She took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa T.'s house for a picnic and they did this while they were there:







Obviously, they had a lot more fun than we did at home.

Tanya and I took them to the aquarium later that day. It was the first time we had been there. It's pretty small, but since the kids had never seen anything like it before, they were impressed.



Tanya took a lot of great pictures and even let me test out her camera.

My shot...

Her shot with the (oh so handy) remote.

It was a nice low-key activity after all the sugar infused craziness we had the night before.

Sunday (the 26th):

Primary Program!

The program was wonderful. It is always sweet to hear the little voices singing and sharing testimonies.

Let me just say here that I've been in Primary enough times to VERY MUCH APPRECIATE all the time, effort and just plain WORK that goes in to this. I am so grateful for the wonderful women in our ward that are willing to serve with the kids. In my mind this is the most difficult (and most important!) organization in the ward to serve in. They are amazing. And especially thanks to Heidi who wrangles my precocious Kenna every week. It's a tough job!

Kenna was scared to go up on the stand at first, and although I'm not certain how she fared while she was up there, she was happy when it was all over. We had to leave Church early to come back and help Matt out before he went to work (the big hole in his shoulder was hurting a fair amount). Lyssa cried all the way home about not getting to go to her class and play with the kids. Ah Nursery. Blessed be thy teachers.

We had a yummy dinner with Matt's family later in the afternoon. Tanya made a wonderful spread for everyone. I can't wait to try out her Beef Tips recipe myself!

Straight from there, we ran off to an Eagle Court of Honor for my nephew, Dallin. It was so neat to see him receive an award for such a great accomplishment! The bald eagle they brought in intrigued the girls, but when it started flapping its wings, I think they got a little nervous.

Tuesday (the 28th):

Kenna's official birthday. Oh my, where has the last five years gone!

After the girls got home from school, we went to the Planetarium. It is Kenna's favorite place and has the added bonus of being easy on the wallet since they don't charge to look around.

Grandma and Grandpa T. came over later, as well as Aunt Lori and Cousin Bryson. (Grandpa Y. wasn't feeling well so they weren't able to make it over.) It was nice and mellow after Friday's hullabaloo. We did the present thing, and had some cake and ice cream to share (oh my what a sugar fest this week is turning out to be!). We played fairies, checked out all the new toys and what they did and just let the kids get hyper and have fun.

Good times.

With that...I believe I am mostly caught up. Congrats to you if you actually made it through this. There are times when having this double as a journal is incompatible with making it interesting for anyone but me. (Okay, that's probably most of the time...sorry.)

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Par-tay!

I can finally grab a spare minute to post an update on some of the fun stuff we did this last weekend. And BOY HOWDY was there a lot of stuff.

Friday (the 24th):

I went out to lunch with Tanya and the in-laws. We went to one of my favorite little places here in town called Les Madelines. (Seriously, if any of you are ever in town and are the "foodie" type, you have to go here. Also, if you like pastries, it's a bakery and they have something called Kouing Aman that is SO. AMAZING.) I really love their food; it's light and healthy (well...minus the pastry part) and just plain yummy.

I headed straight for home after we finished, and it was a good thing! There was still a lot we needed to do before the party.

~~~~~~~~
This is where I report that the kids didn't think helping me get ready for the party was all that fun - unless it was the part where we made the cakes for the kids to decorate - and that they fought me all week about it. My take-away lesson for that Mix-it-Up idea? Don't try to teach them how to clean the whole house and get ready for a party all in the same week. (I know you saw that coming, why didn't you tell me?) We learned some really valuable things from it though (like they can help more than I thought they could), so I think it was worth it in the end.
~~~~~~~~

I have a tendency to sort of freeze up and do nothing when I get really stressed. Since I had a lot on my mind with work and other family stuff, not even including the party and birthday, I think I froze up most of the week and didn't get things accomplished like I wanted to. When Tanya got to the house, the panic had just set in where I knew I wouldn't be able to get it all done in time. Lucky for me she saved my booty. I am not overstating this - SHE WAS MY LIFESAVER.

While we were busy getting everything ready, Matt headed to the doctor to get a small cyst taken off his shoulder. (Nothing serious, just irritating.) They ended up having to make a decent sized hole to get the thing out, so he was pretty sore once he got back (and the numbness wore off).

When the kids arrived, the first thing we did was this:

Balloon release, Nienie style...complete with wishes attached.

It was so much fun! They got into it way more than I thought they would and sort of turned the whole thing into a balloon race.

Then we decorated cakes. Somehow this has turned into one of our birthday traditions. We always make a small cake for the birthday kid and let them decorate it with whatever they want. Our girls have LOVED it and look forward to it every birthday, so we decided to share the love.

Some of the kids getting ready to decorate.

My niece, Harlie, with her completed cake. This pose was so cute, I couldn't resist posting the picture!

Somewhere in there our couch broke. When Matt pulled it away from the wall to assess the damage we discovered that it came with an extra accessory we didn't know about. Our first clue was a blade sticking out of the back of it about 3 inches. Apparently a set of scissors got sewn into it when it was being made. Matt was able to fix the couch though and (BONUS!) we got a new set of scissors out of the whole deal. Too bad there is a big slit in the back of the couch where we had to cut to get them the rest of the way out.

All the kids.

All in all, it was a great time. The kids stayed around a little while and played down in the basement while the adults got to talk. My little social butterfly loved her party and I loved having it over so I don't have to worry about it any more!

That's enough of an update from me for one day. More to come!

Talk to the Animals

This weekend we had a chance to talk to all sorts of wild animals. After we got all our work (okay, MOST of our work) done on Saturday morning, we made an impromptu visit to the Zoo. We didn't pick the best day to go. The place was packed with people since they had their annual fund raiser that morning. But the weather was nice and we got to see quite a bit in the short amount of time we had.

Matt with the kids by the giraffes. (The giraffe

walked right behind his head just as I snapped the picture.

One of the guides showing the girls a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

(Yes, the ones they ate on Fear Factor. Yes, Alyssa actually touched it.)

Me, McKenna and Liam on the train

Matt and Alyssa on the train

The girls had a great time, minus the part about not seeing a hippo. (Kenna was really disappointed.) We did get to see the white alligator though. A good opportunity since I guess he is going home to Louisiana next week and there are only 10 of them in the world. The rest of the weekend was filled with this animal....

I am teething! My gums hurt...

Showing off the new teeth he sprouted about a week ago...

We had a great weekend!

Splash Park

I love it when Matt's sister Tanya comes for a visit for lots of reasons. One of them is that we get to do fun things like this:

Erin, Harley, and McKenna

When Aunt Tanya came to town about a month ago, we took a bunch of the cousins to a near-by splash park. We had such a great time!

Kenna and Lyssa chillin' in the sun

It was a perfectly warm and cloudless day. The water was cold, but it didn't seem to bother the kids too much, especially the boys. They spent almost three hours running around in all the different fountains, splashing each other, and sunning themselves on the warm concrete.

Jerem, Alyssa, Liam and Matt playing with the fountains

Logan, Jerem, Tanya and Erin

Kenna, Jerem, Logan, Erin, Alyssa, Harley and Liam getting warm

Even Liam got in on the fun. He didn't like the cold water very much, but he was happy to be carted around and be close to where all the action was with the other kids.

I had never been to a splash park like this before, but I certainly want to go again. It works out much better than the pool since I have a hard time keeping track of all three kids by myself. (I REALLY need to get the kids signed up for swimming lessons next summer...)

Thanks for getting us all together Tanya! We've always got a place for you whenever you can come visit!

Savor the moment

Just so you know...Having a brood of sick children is detrimental to blogging.

I know, I know...it comes as a big surprise. After all, you should be able to just sit and wipe a snotty nose here and there or give a hug or two and everyone should be happy vegetating on the couch. You would think that would leave plenty of time for internet surfing and blog typing. Not so, my friend.

It pretty much sucks the life out of you and anyone else that haplessly wanders by.

So much so that YOU get sick.

And then there's no one there to wipe your nose and give you a hug and WHY IN THE WORLD would they let you sit on the couch and vegetate when they all feel better and have been cooped up in the house for a week and a half.

And you start feeling very sorry for yourself...

And then...

Things happen to remind you how you should be grateful for all these snot covered moments.

I don't know if you blog stalk like I do, but there are quite a few that I like to read when I have the time. A couple of those are C Jane and her sister Nienie.

This last weekend Nienie and her husband were in a horrible plane crash. The pilot passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital and Nienie (Stephanie) and her husband (Christian) are suffering from serious burns among other things.

There's more to the story if you care to follow the links, but it has effected me more than I would have thought (since I've never actually met them).

It has raised so many questions in my mind: What would I do if something like that happened to me, or Matt...or both of us? So many questions, and not enough answers. I have pondered a lot about their situation and their little family and me heart goes out to them and all those that love them. How quickly life changes...

As I was thinking about them and the questions their situation has brought to my mind, I got a text message from my brother-in-law.

It appears that the excitement about the kidney transplant for Angie was premature. Matt's little brother Aaron is no longer a match...which means we are searching for a donor again. It's tough news to take, especially after she has come so far and done so much knowing that a kidney was waiting for her as soon as she was well enough.

It is still sinking in.

Out of the few coherent thoughts that I've had about it all, I'm most keenly aware that life is a very precious, very delicate thing. And sometimes it takes things like these to remind us of it.

Every moment is one that we should savor...

...even if it's covered in snot.

Family Reunion

We had our big ol' family reunion this weekend with all my dad's brothers and sisters. I was able to see several aunts, uncles and cousins that I haven't seen for a long time. It's amazing how much everyone changes in a year!

I spent most of the time wrangling the rugrats. But I did get to talk to some nieces and nephews that I haven’t chatted with for a while to get caught up on their news. Some of the biggest headlines in the immediate family:

Mandy is expecting baby #1 (a girl!) and is due in December.

Stefanie is engaged! She and Tyson are getting married December 20th. (Looks like December is going to be a big month!)

Shannon and Shantel are almost done with their respective schooling endeavors. And my sister Jill is just starting up.

Lyssa sat and nursed this bottle of bug juice for about 15 minutes. (Good thing we took it out of the paper bag!)
Check out how red her cheeks are. They were playing so hard!


Mom spent some of the time with Grandma to get some people in old family photos identified. (Check out the set up they’ve got there. A digital photo frame and 3 laptops…poor almost 96 year old grandma was a little over-whelmed!) It was such a cute picture seeing the two of them together trying to figure out who everyone was.

We ended with the traditional water fight (the girls had fun dumping water on each other as you can see in the photos). You should see how fast people can move when that water starts to fly.

It was just a nice relaxing day to hang out and catch up with everyone.

Update

We got some great news today...

They are going to move ahead with my sister-in-law's kidney transplant!

She has been waiting so long and has worked so hard accomplish all the things they told her she had to be able to do before they would do the surgery.

She had to learn to walk and talk again after two strokes almost took her from us a couple of years ago. If you had seen her then and could see her now, you would not believe the amazing progress she has made.

And now, it looks like they are going to give her a transplant date in a couple of weeks.

All I can think of to say is...WAHOO!!

Any ideas?

I have a confession to make.

You see, it's not like I started out with this in mind. I just turned around one day and there it was, staring me in the face.

I am a supremely boring mom.

We don't get out much (or you know, EVER). But I have a lot of (mostly) good excuses - Matt isn't home in the evening, I'm not home during the day, I'm pooped by the time I get home from work, housework needs to be done, the baby is too little young, blah, blah, blah.

But I see so many other moms doing this stuff and how fast my little ones are growing up and I think that those excuses won't mean SQUAT in 10 years when I finally make the time, but my kids no longer want to hang out with me.

So I'm turning over a new leaf. Starting with taking them to the movie in the park tonight - by myself, and WAY past bedtime (my rules are already flying out the window!).

But after that I need IDEAS. See, I'm not a very creative person, I don't know where all the cool hang outs are like splash parks and museums and farms and stuff.

So I'm begging...I know you guys all do amazing and fun things with your kids all the time. So fess up. Share your ideas for fun family outings - whether you're close-by or not.

I need all the help I can get!

Happy Birthday Sis!

Happy Birthday to my big sis who is:

the most organized person I know

also one of the most selfless and giving

a clean freak (in a good way)

a great travel buddy

fun

a life saver

a great friend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI!

p.s. this is the only picture I had.

don't hate me.

:o)

Time flies when you're having...something...

HO. LY. COW.

I cannot believe how fast the last few weeks have flown by. Last night I was thinking, "Oh, I haven't posted something for a couple of days. I really should catch up." No, it's been a WEEK. What strange time warp did I get sent through? It certainly doesn't feel like we're already to another Thursday.

And, as a side note, how in the heck did my birthday get so close so quickly! Gah. They're sneaking up on me...

See, this is what happens when your life is a crazy mess. To be fair it is usually the good kind of crazy mess; but with a little too much of the insane worked in to the last little while.

To catch up:

No, we still haven't really resolved the scheduling issues at Matt's work. It's getting closer (I think) and hopefully it will be better because the sergeant is actually sort of listening to the officers now...sort of. Matt has been working on a new schedule that the sergeant didn't immediately shoot down, so he is continuing to tweak it. Hopefully that will land us a little closer to a workable schedule.

We did, however, manage to get things with school worked out and he is a third of the way through the L.A.S.T. C.L.A.S.S. Do you even know how excited I am for him!?!?!

Last weekend was great and horrible all at the same time. We were able to spend a lot of extended time with Matt's sister from GA - and I love love LOVE having her come to visit. As she helped out with the kids all weekend I had an epiphany of how great it would be to have a nanny. I would hire her on the spot. She's fabulous and the kids already miss her. (Lyssa asked me on the way home Monday when Aunt Tanya was coming over, then cried when I told her Aunt Tanya had to go home.)

It was also Matt's little brother's wedding reception here in UT. It was fun for the celebrating and the party aspect of the whole thing. It was the meeting the old neighbors from the ward thing that was the not so fun part.

**I guess it would help to insert a little side story here. Matt and I grew up in the same neighborhood from the time we were about 15 so we both knew all these people. This particular group of folks is pretty good at spreading rumors (be they true or untrue) about the teenagers there. It caused a LOT of hurt feelings for Matt and I, my parents and I'm sure a whole bunch of other teens that fell victim to it.**

So imagine my non-desire to see these people ever again and then get to spend an entire evening "reminiscing" with them all. Whee. That was fun. (In case you can't tell, that was sarcasm...)

Good thing I had a cute happy newlywed couple to keep me distracted. Aaron and Rachel looked so happy and excited to be together. It was fun to watch them and think about what it was like to be in that stage of life. I hope they take advantage of it and love learning to live with each other.

In other news, we have an awesome friend that traded us lawnmowers to we could actually mow our lawn. There are parts of the backyard that are so thick you can't get through them with the one we had. Since his lawn is so small and ours is so HUGE, the one we had worked better for what he needed. Now we have the super-industrial professional lawn maintenance ultra mulcher - or something like that. You should have seen it dragging Matt across the backyard, literally.

I can pretty much guarantee you don't want to hear about the other stuff bumbling around in my brain at the moment, so I think I'll stop while I'm ahead...or at least not THAT far behind. Please don't beat me up if my posts continue to be a little few and far between for the next little while. Until we get all the school and schedule nonsense out of the way, I'm just having a hard time finding time to get around to it.

Week in Review

Since I was a little preoccupied with other things this last week, writing everything down sort of fell by the wayside. I need to play a little catch up with the "goings on" before I get into the thoughts that have kept me so distracted.

Monday: Got the invitation to an old and very good friend's wedding. We were best friends when I lived in Hawaii back in 6th to 8th grade. I am so excited for her. She is an amazing person - I can only imagine that he is too. I wish I could go and be with her on her big day!

Tuesday: I got to go to chemo with dad and the rest of the "entourage". (Mom and 4 out of the 6 kids were there with him.) He has a little train of people that follow him through the office. I personally think it's SO cool that my sibs make the time to come with him to so many of his appointments. I am grateful for such a close knit family!

Kenna had tumbling so I got to hang out at my sister's house and contemplate a family history project with her. (My sister has a tumbling studio in her garage...)

While there I learned that my niece is expecting a baby!! She is the one that miscarried not to long ago so I am doubly excited for her and her hubby. What great news!

Wednesday: Some sad happenings with friends from work. I found out that a former co-worker and beloved grandpa type friend has been diagnosed with cancer. It breaks my heart to hear that yet another person in my life has been afflicted with this horrible disease.

Another sweet hearted person that is in my work group found out her 23 year old nephew was killed in a car/motorcycle accident. This also breaks my heart. I have some nieces and nephews around this age and couldn't bear to lose any of them, especially like that.

Thursday: Crazy busy day at work. So many things had to get done and it felt like I just couldn't find the time to do it all.

I found out a project that was scheduled to move forward this week didn't go because someone didn't get the submission packet turned in until today and it missed the approval committee meeting. It killed me to see the project get stalled after the person had known the urgency and had promised to move it forward. I was extremely disappointed, especially since the person responsible has not yet called to let me know - I had to find out from another source.

Got to go to lunch with a dear friend. She needed mashed potatoes and I needed some time out of the building. Being with her always cheers me up.

I was also able to spend some time with mom and dad, and review the family history project with them as well. I actually got some of my old junk cleaned out of their basement too. (I've only been married for 7 ½ years...and officially living on my own for 11. It's about time!) I found some old cards and letters which I'm thoroughly excited to read again...just as soon as I can catch a spare minute at home!

Matt had his last day of class for the semester. One more class and he's done!

Friday: Another busy busy work day. Deadlines were moved up, which always creates a special type of chaos. We finished the most important items though, and I was able to sneak out a half hour early to get a head start on a weekend with the whole family at home. I love Matt's weekends off - four days straight of having him home in the evenings goes a long way to improving my sanity levels.

Saturday: Matt took the girls shopping to get a few of the things we need to get the yard/garden in shape for the summer. As much as I really hate yard work, I'm excited to get things spruced up and looking nice. I know the girls will love having some flowers in the front yard that they can help take care of (they even have their own watering cans now thanks to daddy).

I was able to get a few things done around the house while they were gone, and I got a little one on one time with the boy.

Grandma and Grandpa T. took the kids later that evening so we could have a night out. They had the 4 other local grandkids over too so it ended up being a very fun evening for the kids...although I'm not so sure about poor grandma and grandpa.

Matt indulged me and took me to look at a camera I've been ogling for a while. It finally came out on the market this month and I've been anxious to get a look at it. Not that we can afford it right now, but it's nice to know what you want should you ever be the recipient of a large sum of money you can't figure out what to do with. (I must say I'm unimpressed with the staff of Best Buy and their knowledge of digital cameras.) We ended up getting a small (and cheap!) digital camera for the girls to play with.

We went for a late dinner and ended up running into Matt's brother Joe. Seems he was working the off-road show at the convention center up the street and was able to get us in for a peek after we finished eating. It was fun to look at all the tricked out Jeeps and other off-road vehicles.

It was even better to hear about all the progress that Angie (Joe's wife) is making though. The last few months have been amazing. She's almost rid of her cane and they are talking about moving forward with her transplant in August.

Sunday: Church was nice. The girls were pretty good and Liam slept most of the way through it. I had a dead arm, but it was worth it to get the chance to concentrate on the lessons. My visiting teacher still thinks I'm her project, but she's nice and helps with the baby when I need it. The Relief Society teacher did a great job and I had to hold back tears all the way through the lesson. (When did I get to be such a cry baby!?! I get choked up at everything these days...)

We had a pretty nice slow day at home. The girls were able to go outside and try out their new camera. Lyssa took a bzillion pictures of everything. Kenna's were a little less prolific and a little more interesting. I was able to press all the quilt blocks (finally!) and finish getting them arranged. Matt was able to work on a schedule readjustment for work in the hopes that they take his suggestions instead of what their current plan is.

If you actually read all that, I'm impressed. I barely had the attention span for it myself. Here's a little reward for your stick-to-it-iveness.

Wednesday

Alyssa and Kenna were arguing in the back seat of the car on the way home from Grandma T.'s this afternoon. To paraphrase how it went:

A: "I wanna go to Christmas."
M: "Go to Christmas?"
A: "Yeah. I wanna go to Christmas."
M: "You can't go to Christmas."
A: "Why, Sisa?" (her way of saying sister)
M (with her eyes rolling and the exasperated hand movements): "Because Christmas is a DAY. Not a place."
A (like the lightbulb finally came on): "OOOOOH, it's a WEDnesday."

I'm not even sure what that means, or why, but it struck me as REALLY funny this afternoon.

Maybe that's because I had just gotten done going to the hospital with Mom and Dad and some siblings for Dad's biopsy (only to discover that we weren't actually DOING the biopsy today, we were just MEETING the doctor that would do it on Friday) and I really needed something to be funny.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good time hanging out with the FAM and all, but I like hanging out under more pleasant circumstances. Sometimes I feel like all this with dad being sick is just a bad dream and I'll wake up and everything will be right again. Sometimes I can let myself forget about it and it feels like life is just normal. But you never know when you will have good days and when you will have bad ones. Today was one of those days that the weight of it all just came crashing down on me again.

Today's worry was that I already miss that my dad won't be there for all the big events in my kids lives. I know it's really stupid to worry about things that haven't happened yet (or in this case haven't NOT happened yet...) but family has always been such a big deal to me. I want them to be able to have him there. I want them to KNOW him. To know how fabulous and amazing he is. To know his great sense of humor and positive attitude about everything. To hear all his funny growing up stories. I want them to REMEMBER. Remember how much fun they have with him. And then I feel this desperate need to write everything down, commit everything to memory, or carry my video camera with me everywhere just so they will have a record of it all - so they can know and remember all the great things about him that I know and remember.

It kind of makes me think that this is how the prophets might feel in trying to teach us about Heavenly Father (not that I am worthy in ANY way to parallel my life to a prophet's...) They wanted so badly to convey everything about our Father, so we too can KNOW and REMEMBER.

It reminded me of a scripture in John 17:25-26:

"O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee...
"And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them..."

I hope I can do this for my children.

Happy Easter!

Well, after a somewhat frazzled week trying to get Liam's blessing arranged for today, everything worked out fine. We were able to have almost everyone there (minus one family that had a child throw up in the car on their way to our house, one that couldn't get to Utah from Idaho on such short notice, and one dedicated YW President that was the only one attending meetings for her group on Easter Sunday).

(run on sentences are fun, aren't they?)

Anyway, the Easter Bunny portion of Easter was mostly non-existent this year because of all the hub-bub with the Blessing (I didn't even take pictures...gasp!). I even forgot to get pictures of the girls in their new dresses (which I could have done anytime during the day since they refused to take them off). But I did manage to get some of the Blessing and those that participated. (Why do I like parenthesis so much?)

My Amazing Neighbor

Alternate Title #1: How I Drove the First Counselor in Our Ward Insane
Alternate Title #2: Why My Next Door Neighbor Hates Me
Alternate Title #3: Tips on How to Loose a Ward in 3 Days

I'm completely and totally positive that my next door neighbor must hate me right now. Why you ask? Let me explain how it all started...(warning: long winded post ahead)

Tuesday Night:
I have a sudden realization that if Dad has to go in for chemo next week, there's a good chance he won't be able to attend Liam's blessing on the 13th. Enter Panic Mode.

Call Mom, ask if she thinks I should try to get the blessing switched to this weekend since family will be in town anyway. She is patient. Reassures me that it might not be necessary but tells me to do it if I think that will be the best thing. (Fabulous, isn't she?)

Still in Panic Mode. Call Bishop's house and leave a message. It's YM/YW night, he's probably at the Church right? Feel a little bit better. Wait for him to call back. Give up and go to sleep.

Wednesday:
Wonder all day why I haven't yet heard from the Bishop. Decide to call when I get home from work.

Call his house around dinner time. Guess what? He's out of town. Enter Panic Mode again. Call next door neighbor who is the first counselor. He's not home. He's helping his son with his Eagle Project at the hospital. (What a nice guy!) Ask his wife to have him call me when he gets home. She says she's a flake (???) and might forget so call back at 9 if he hasn't called by then.

Carry my cell phone everywhere I go around the house until he finally calls at about 9:15. I explain the situation to him...he says he has to call the Bishop to check if it's okay. He'll try in the morning and call me back. I ask him to please call as soon as he finds out. I'm sure I'm sounding desperate at this point.

Thursday:
Repeat of the carrying cell phone thing. No call. Get home, putter around the house. Do laundry. Feed children. Talk to mother-in-law to warn her what might be coming. During this phone call, have an epiphany. It's Easter weekend...that means Easter Jeep Safari. That means the male portion of this side of the family is all out of town. Say a few choice words (in my head only people!). Also feel a huge surge of guilt as I realize that mother-in-law has a huge paper due tomorrow and she still wants to make the boy's blessing outfit. She says she will call and see when the guys are planning on coming home. Feel more guilt that they might have to leave their trip early.

Call mom. Feel even more guilt. She just wants to know by Saturday night so they can run to the grocery store to get food to help me out with the family gathering afterwards. Wonder how I have such a cool family...I certainly don't belong here.

Around 6:30 I finally decide to call the neighbor. He hasn't been able to contact the Bishop. I explain that I have family in other states that need to know this information so as soon as he finds out if he could please call. He says he'll call the Stake President. (This is when he starts hating me...)

He calls me back a little while later. The Stake President says it's fine. We'll just treat it like a normal Fast Sunday and do the blessing after the Sacrament. What?! Wait, he didn't understand me. I (thought I) said that we needed to do a little private shindig for this. He hates me more, but is still nice. Oh, let me call and see what I can find out about THAT. (I'm sure he says this while making a mental note to start looking for another house so he can get away from me...)

Talk to MIL. The guys have to check out of their hotel at 10. They can be home by Sunday afternoon. Yay. I'm not shortening their trip after all. Sigh of relief. A little less guilt. She says she's almost done with the paper and it shouldn't be a big deal to sew the outfit. MIL suggests to start around 4 on Sunday. Not what my family was originally thinking, but could work. I have to call and see when my brother is going home.

Call mom. She asks brother, they're not going home til around 5:30 Sunday night. Yay! We found a time when everyone can be there.

Call Matt to tell him the good news. I tell him. Silence. OH CRAP. He has to work. THE HUSBAND CAN'T BE THERE AT THAT TIME IDIOT. Yeah. Feel this big. He says he'll see what he can work out. Guilt that went away? BACK NOW. BIG TIME.

Counselor calls back. Stake President says that's okay. He now has to call the Second Counselor who is also out of town to find out if he can "officiate" at the thing since he is SICK. More guilt. This poor man! I apologize profusely, thank him a million times and he says he'll call me back when he finds out.

(Hang in there...almost done)

He calls back again. Second counselor thinks he can be there but has to check with his wife (yeah, that's right, I'm taking him away from his family on Easter Sunday. Go me.)

He calls back again. Second Counselor's Wife is a saint. He can make it. 4:00 on Sunday, my house (PANIC....house needs to be cleaned....when am I going to fit that in!). Great! Thank you! I owe you something big!

We have it all worked out now.

If only Matt can make it.

Is it okay to lie when teaching your child about honesty?

Seriously, is it?

When Matt dropped off the girls today, he mentioned that Kenna had been played the XBox this morning and that she'd probably want to play some more, but that she told him not to tell me.

I got in the car with the kids and Kenna immediately asks if she can play "Lego Blocks" when we get home because she hasn't gotten to play today. I told her that I knew she had played already, but it was still okay if she wanted to play a little longer (she isn't feeling well...). I start telling her about how she needs to be honest and that it makes me sad when she doesn't tell the truth.

Then she asks, "How did you know I played this morning, Mommy."

long pause while I'm considering this: Do I tell her Daddy told me you did and have her not trust her dad...or do I lie to her while I'm trying to teach her not to do that very thing.

PARENTING DILEMMA

I opted for the lie. I know, I'm horrible. See this post.

The most plausible thing I could come up with on short notice? "Mommy just knows, sweetheart." (Yeah, I'm good like that...)

And to make sure I felt guilty she added, "Is that because mommies and daddies are just smart and know things like that?"

My Life

Life with three kids...

'Nuff said.

Confessions of a Working Mom

Look HERE

Yeah, that...I've done some of that.

Shh...don't tell.

Broken Heart

Dad went to a new doctor today. They've been worried about some new symptoms that have shown up lately. That and his hip is getting worse.

So the appointment was at 4:30. At 6:30 I still hadn't heard from them and I needed to ask mom a question about how Liam had done that day so I could report to his doctor. Once I got her on the phone, the majority of the short conversation after asking about Liam went like this:

me: "You're still at the doctor?"
mom: "Yes, we're waiting for some more tests. We'll probably only have about a year."
me: "What?!?"
mom: "They think it might be the cancer or congestive heart failure. We're not sure yet. We'll let you know what we find out."
me: "..."
mom: "I need to go."
me: "Call me as soon as you get done."
mom: "Okay, bye."

I hung up and immediately started crying. How do you deal with this? How are you supposed to handle the news that your father is dying and might only have a year left with you here in this mortal existence? My beliefs about the afterlife aside, it still hurts. It's still scary. And I would still give anything to keep him here with us. He won't be here for all the things I wanted and needed him for. He might not even see Liam's first birthday. It breaks my heart for so many reasons. I want him here. He's one of my best friends. He has always been the one that understood me and the one I could talk to about anything. I want to be selfish and just keep him here with us forever.

I ache for my mom. I know it kills her everyday to see him suffering with pain or to just worry about how he's doing and what is really going on inside his body. They have been a team for over 50 years. How do you deal with the prospect that your companion isn't going to be here much longer? I cannot fathom what she must be going through...or what dad must be going through knowing that he has to leave her. Yet both of them continue to put on a brave face and act like this is just another hurdle to get over and they will be able to handle it like any other trial. Dad was almost chipper when I talked to him later this evening and mom was very calm about everything as she explained it to me.

How was I blessed with such amazing parents? They continue to astound me and make me wish that I had been better at listening to their immense wisdom all along the way. I am in awe of both of them. They are the most selfless and charitable people that I know. Always concerned about other people and always doing the right thing.

So... Now we're back to the waiting game. Waiting on test results. Waiting to talk to another doctor. Waiting to see how much longer we have together here.

I hate waiting.

Back to Work

I went back to work today.

I'm grateful for my job.
I'm grateful for the ability to work.
I'm grateful that I can help provide for my family.

But I'd much rather be home with the kids and Matt.

Even though the girls sometimes drive me nuts.
Even though I never get sick or vacation days.
Even though the work never ends.

I miss my family.